


Murder Most Foul

by dxmichelle



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Game Night, Gen, Murder Mystery Game, Seto Kaiba is never gonna agree to join game night ever again, Whodunnit, epic levels of sass, it's all fun and games until someone winds up fake-dead, then the fun and games continue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26033626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dxmichelle/pseuds/dxmichelle
Summary: Game night at the Muto house: games, laughter, friendship.Game night at the Kaiba mansion: games, laughter, betrayals, backstabbing, revenge, murder by duel disk, friendship.
Comments: 39
Kudos: 103





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was the result of a hilarious discord chat of mystery hijinks with [@bobtailsquid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobtailsquid/pseuds/bobtailsquid).

“You want me… _to do_ _what?!_ ” 

Yugi sat on the of the fancy leather sofas in Seto Kaiba’s office, smiling innocently at his dueling rival despite the rather harsh look he was getting in return. Mokuba, however, was sitting on the couch opposite him, daring looks between both Yugi and his brother, the homework on the seat beside him completely abandoned in favor of watching the card-less match play out before him.

Seto was behind his desk, a coffee mug in his hand that had paused midway to his mouth as his brain tried to wrangle through Yugi’s rather bizarre request.

It wasn’t often that Yugi ever came to see him at the office, but considering that he and Mokuba were so busy these days working out the details of the new Kaiba Land expansion, he probably wouldn’t have made it up to the top floor office even if he had tried.

Come to think of it, Yugi probably only got so far today because Mokuba was out of school and yelled into the desk intercom to let him up before he could even get a word in edgewise.

Seto put the mug down. To be completely honest, Yugi _never_ came to see him. Any ridiculous adventure that Yugi seemed to jump into always ended up roping him in just by association. Fate of the world this, destiny that. But mercifully, those days were gone. Yugi’s funky gold pyramid and the other gaudy trinkets were swallowed up by the tomb, and the mysterious Pharaoh that had been sharing headspace with him the entire time? Decided at the last possible second to _not_ venture through the blinding gate and live the life he was denied the first time.

The world was no longer in peril. His soul was no longer on the line if he wanted to duel, and life finally returned to normal.

Well, normal as it could possibly get with _two_ Yugi Mutos running around.

So, knowing that Yugi came to him for something that didn’t involve a duel disk was at least intriguing, and probably the only reason that he let Mokuba override him and allow him past security.

Yugi started again. “Help me with a… _project_ of sorts that I’m working on,” he said. A notebook with a pen clipped through the spirals sat perched on the edge of his knees.

“What sort of project?” asked Mokuba.

“Well,” Yugi leaned forward and rested his hands on the notebook. “Next month it will be my turn to host game night, and I was hoping to do something a bit… _different_ than what the gang was used to.”

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. “No good party games in at the Game Shop? The last one you got - the escape-in-a-box? It was a lot of fun!”

Yugi beamed. It was Grandpa’s idea to let the gang try that one, and it was a huge success. “It really was! But I wanted to do something _bigger_. Téa will be on break from New York soon, and it’ll be Atem’s first game night outside of Dungeon Dice Monsters at Duke’s and before that it was an online Monster World campaign with Bakura while he was out of the country.

“But Atem is used to Monster World and Dungeon Dice Monsters, and since he’s been helping Grandpa out at the shop, he knows what all those games are, so it wouldn’t really be much of a surprise.”

He paused. “I have an idea…but I really can’t pull it off alone.”

“So you came to me for help,” Seto said, his voice flat. “You couldn’t ask any of your cheerleader band?”

Yugi seemed to know he was going to ask that, and his reply was quick, on point. “They don’t have the space that you guys have.”

“Oh!” Mokuba said, eyes bright, and he looked from Yugi to his brother and back. “If you needed like an event room or a private slot in one of our virtual arcades or something, why didn’t you say so? We can set you up no problem!”

“Well…” Yugi laughed awkwardly, as Seto raised the mug again to his lips, “I was, uh…hoping to borrow your house.”

Seto nearly choked on his coffee. “ _What!?”_

Yugi cringed. Kaiba didn’t say anything else, not yet, but his cold stare was ready to shut the request down before he could even explain himself.

Thankfully, Mokuba’s eyes, also set on him, were wide and curious, and most importantly – _friendly_ – and it encouraged him to continue. “Since we all really liked the escape-in-a-box game, I wanted to do something like that! But we just did an escape room game, and I didn’t want to make a carbon copy. Atem _really_ liked the puzzle and mystery from the experience though, so I went online to look up other kinds of games….”

Seto was completely scowling now, long fingers drumming against the gleaming surface of his desk.

“…and thought of doing a murder mystery, like a whodunnit, like those fancy dinner theaters they do on cruises and stuff.”

“ _Oh!_ ” Mokuba’s eyes lit up. “That sounds _awesome_!”

Yugi smiled at him. At least _someone_ was excited by it. “I thought so. It would be a cool interaction thing where everyone would probably have some sort of role to play, we’d all dress up for the part, and it would be a hunt to find the killer!”

Seto didn’t look incredibly impressed. “And you need my home because…?”

“I was hoping to do it based off a Clue-style board game,” said Yugi.

“ _Oh_ , I love this plan already,” said Mokuba, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. He then tilted his head and shared his next thought. “Though I gotta ask – um, gathering everyone for a game like that seems like a lot to pull together. Wouldn’t it be easier to just…shell out the board game?”

“Well, yeah,” Yugi admitted, “but that also takes some of the fun out of it. Bakura’s last campaign was really neat and we were all able to play, even without all being in the same place. I want this to be just as exciting, and twice as fun!”

“Do the rest of your friends know what you’re trying to do?” asked Mokuba.

“I mentioned it to Atem as an afterthought a while ago when we were first picking out an escape room to do with the others. But he doesn’t know that I’m trying to plot this out. I think he thinks that I’m trying to find a new escape-in-a-box, and I think _everyone else_ thinks we’re gonna have game night at my place.”

“Oooh,” said Mokuba, “So who’s gonna be the killer?”

“Well, I haven’t come up with that yet,” Yugi said, “there’s a lot I haven’t plotted out.” He paused. “I was hoping to get the green light before working out anything else.”

He looked to Kaiba. “Your house is the largest, and it would really fit the theme of the game better than anyone else’s,” he said, and then quickly added, “And of course you and Mokuba would be more than welcome to play too!”

“Really?” Mokuba’s grin nearly escaped right off his face.

“He’s saying that to placate me,” said Seto, “Because he knows otherwise there would be no reason for me to allow the Nerd Herd onto the grounds.”

“No, I’m being serious about it,” said Yugi, “You and Mokuba have always been welcome at game night! Atem wishes you would come, too!”

“I’ve come,” said Mokuba, “Not to Monster World, but I made the last one at Duke’s place!” He looked over at his brother, “They’ve been fun too! You really should come, Seto! Get out of the office for a little while!”

“Atem can wish all he wants, but I don’t like your friends, Yugi. They don’t like me, and we both know this.”

Yugi frowned.

Seto stiffened behind his desk. “And really, the _last_ thing I need are your friends running loose through the mansion.”

Mokuba hopped off the couch, hurried around to the back of the desk and tugged on Seto’s arm. “C’mon… _please_? It’s gonna be so much fun!”

Seto finally broke his gaze with Yugi to look down at his brother. Mokuba’s large eyes were pleading with him.

Mokuba pressed onward. “And the gang doesn’t have to be alone in the house – even if you don’t play, you can still be there too!”

Seto raised an eyebrow at him. “In other words, confined to a corner while the mutts run rampant.”

Mokuba pouted and looked away from him. “That’s not what I meant….” His shoulders slumped and he plunked down onto the floor next to his brother’s chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

Seto glanced down at him briefly before turning back to Yugi. “Let me tell you something, Yugi. I am surrounded by people all day. I come home to _peace_ –”

Mokuba snorted. “With that new duel disk you’re trying to build? You come home to _work_.”

Seto gave him a sharp side-eye. Mokuba returned it with a stink-eye of his own. 

“Regardless of _what_ I do when I’m home, the last thing – or the last _people_ – I want to be around are those who are going to grate on my last nerves. I get enough of that here.”

“Have you even considered that _you_ might actually have fun?” Mokuba asked, “Maybe if you took a break now and then and did something _enjoyable_ , you wouldn’t be so cranky!”

Seto huffed and looked back at Yugi, sitting still as stone on the couch, hands clasped in his lap, mouth pressed into a thin line, just watching him banter with Mokuba.

“I think it would be a fun idea,” said Mokuba, peering around the side of the desk to Yugi, “Regardless of whether or not No-Fun-Seto wants to join. And I think you should go ahead with it.”

Yugi smiled at him, and then faltered. “I’m really happy you’re into the idea, Mokuba, but uh…it’s not just your call to make. It’s Kaiba’s home too, and if he doesn’t want me and the gang there, I can’t just overrule that.”

“ _Pssh_ ,” Mokuba stood back up and leaned forward against the desk. “ _Sure you can_! What if _I_ want to do that for game night? And hold it at the house where _yeah_ , there’s way more room than the Game Shop, and it’ll be a lot more immersive that way!”

He stuck his tongue out at Seto. “Don’t like it? Hide in the lab for a few hours. But I should be able to invite friends over if I want to.”

Followed by a look that clearly said, ‘ _And I_ definitely _want to’._

Seto was quiet for a minute, calculating eyes locked on Yugi, and Yugi stared right back until he finally sighed. “You want me to let Wheeler and the others into my house? There had better be a good payoff for this.”

Yugi’s eyebrows shot up and he looked quickly at Mokuba before resettling back onto Kaiba. “Wait – you’re going to do it?”

Seto’s gaze hardened. “What will _I_ get in return for having _my_ home invaded?”

Yugi bit his lip and looked down at the blank notebook. He didn’t bank on this – the honest expectation was that Kaiba was going to simply turn him down and he would be on his way, or that Mokuba would just talk him into it. Why did he never consider that this wasn’t asking a favor, but of a trade? As he did put it, Kaiba would be giving up a quiet evening at home of whatever he wanted, in order to play host to people he didn’t get along with. He should have expected that something would be demanded in return.

 _Now_ he had to think on his feet. What would he be willing to accept?

“A duel with Atem?”

“ _Heh_.” A single, dry laugh. “You’re going to have to do better.” He didn’t feel like telling Yugi that Atem had an open invitation to the private dueling arena above his office. An invitation that the former Pharaoh had already cashed in on more than twice. There was something quite exhilarating about dueling in the room where their rivalry began – only now the platform arena had been gutted and renovated with new, modern holographic emitters. The Duelist Kingdom-style machines were long gone.

So if he had to give up one of his sacred free evenings to accommodate the Nerd Herd, he must be offered something equally valuable that he didn’t already have access to.

A duel, even one with Atem, was simply not enough.

Yugi made a face. “How about…uh…a tag match? Or a three-way duel between you, me, and Atem? We’ve never done that before.”

Seto raised an eyebrow. _That_ was certainly different. “I’ll accept, at a time and place of my choosing, but that’s _still_ not enough to let Wheeler run wild through my house.”

Yugi’s shoulders slumped a little further inward. Kaiba already wasn’t keen on playing. What else could he offer him?

What else could he _afford_ to offer him?

“Well…” Yugi began slowly, “What would _you_ want?”

Now _Mokuba_ cringed. “Oh Yugi, you shouldn’t have said that….”

He knew he shouldn’t have, but the idea of his preferred game night excited him to no end, and he was determined to see it through. He _had_ to get Kaiba on board. Otherwise he wasn’t sure how he was going to pull off an event like this without finding a large manor or party space to rent, like the ones he saw online for booking weddings and other swanky events. Those were _way_ out of his price range.

Although, he just opened the door for Kaiba to ask for _anything_ he wanted. That could end up easily as expensive, if not more…in other ways.

Yugi expected Kaiba to flash him some sort of sadistic grin and let loose a number of ridiculous terms and conditions; whatever was on the forefront of his mind. Instead, Kaiba tented his fingers together in front of his face, eyes focused down at his desk, deep in thought.

Time passed, and the longer Kaiba sat there, unmoving, the more nervous Yugi became over what he would actually say in the end. He knew that Kaiba wouldn’t want the rest of the gang over, and he was asking a lot. So what would he ask for to consider inviting them into his mansion? After already accepting a three-way duel?

Cool blue eyes finally rose to meet violet ones. “When are you hoping to do this?”

“Oh…” Yugi pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and starting scrolling through the calendar. “Ideally the first of February? Téa will be on break then, and I know she was planning on coming home from New York. I wouldn’t want her to miss out on it.”

Silence returned to the office. No one moved. Yugi held his gaze to Kaiba’s. Mokuba watched his brother.

“…Very well.”

Mokuba’s eyes bugged out of his head and he ran over to high-5 Yugi, who could only sit jaw-dropped. “R-really!?”

Yugi smiled at Mokuba’s giddiness and looked back to Kaiba. “Y-you’ll really let us come?”

“On _my_ terms.”

Yugi froze and held in his next breath. _Here it comes…._

* * *

Control. That’s what Kaiba wanted. Not total control – it was _his_ event, not Kaiba’s after all – but he wanted to ‘go big or go home’ and, well, those were words that Kaiba lived by.

Knowing that Kaiba jetpacked out his Blue Eyes jet at the start of the Grand Prix Tournament, he should have known the way to win Kaiba over would be to stroke his flair for the dramatics.

So now, one week later, Yugi found himself for the first time invited into the Kaiba mansion, and sat with both brothers at the dining room table. One ridiculously large table considering there were only two people who lived in the house.

When he brought his curiosity up, Mokuba had merely shrugged. “Eh. We normally just eat in the kitchen. But you wouldn’t have caught our stepfather doing that. Now though? I do my homework on it.”

Yugi tucked that little bit of info away and looked down at the notebook open in front of him, and tapped his pen against it idly. “So…conditions?”

Seto sat at the head of the table, a steaming coffee mug in front of him, looking as relaxed as Yugi had ever seen him. No extra belts or buckles. No crazy coats or duel-disk. No fancy suits.

A casual Saturday afternoon at the Kaiba Mansion, a once-in-a-lifetime sight that he would have to relish in as long as he possibly could.

Seto sipped his coffee, eyeing the small number of notes that Yugi had prepared ahead of his arrival. “Just how much of the mansion do you plan to use?”

“Well…” Yugi trailed off, uncertain, and looked around. This was the first time he had ever stepped through the front doors, and he honestly had no idea how many rooms there were. “I uh…really don’t know? I want there to be a _mystery_. It wouldn’t be fun to corral everyone in one room for the entire night.”

“But you _are_ planning this based off of a board game,” said Seto, “Where a crime has already occurred and you need to pinpoint down who did it, where, and with what. So unless your killer is going to strike and then, say, stuff their victim in a closet, it’s going to be pretty obvious to _where_ the murder took place.”

“Right,” said Yugi, “But part of the mystery was going to be for all of the players to be in different places at the time of the murder, so it’s not clear to just who would have had opportunity to strike. _Everyone_ is a suspect, and it won’t be clear until it happens to who is going to fake die.”

A door opened and closed somewhere else in the house and Fuguta appeared minutes later checking the time against his watch, car keys in hand.

“Mokuba, it is time.”

“Oh! Right!” Mokuba hopped up, and at Yugi’s raised brow, added, “I’m meeting Rebecca for study help.”

Yugi blinked. “Rebecca Hawkins? She’s in town?” And she didn’t seek him out? That was new.

“Uh huh, but only until next week. Her grandfather is studying something in the museum here before they return home. She’s helping me with chemistry.”

“That’s really nice of her,” said Yugi. He didn’t realize that Rebecca and Mokuba had hit it off, though he supposed it did help that they were about the same age.

Mokuba shrugged. “It’s a trade.” He couldn’t help but snicker. “I promised her another run at Seto’s firewalls.”

Seto rolled his eyes. “I reinforced it twice over since your last little attempt. She’s not getting in.”

Mokuba had a sly grin on his face. “Well, we’ll find out! I told her if she breaks through and she’s not kicked out within ten seconds I’d get her passes to USA Kaiba Land. She’s _determined_ , so I guess we’ll find out!”

A quick one-armed hug to his brother and a wave at Yugi and then he was out the door. “Have fun, guys!”

Seto looked to Yugi once the front door had shut behind them. “So now that Mokuba is out of the house, I assume you have some idea of who the killer is going to be.”

“I was actually going to draw names randomly,” said Yugi, “And then base a story around that.”

Seto seemed to mull it over before he got up, beckoned Yugi to follow, and led him into his home office. “I imagine it would be easier to build a story around why people would want the victim dead; then it wouldn’t matter who you chose to be the killer.”

He sat behind the desk. “Take Mokuba for example. Say you choose him to be the killer. What motive would he have for….” He waved a hand and plucked a name out of the air. “…Killing Tristan, for example? Are you going to choose your victim at random too?”

Yugi hummed thoughtfully. It _would_ be easier to work the other way, as Kaiba suggested. “No, I think I’ll have a clear idea of who is going to die.”

Seto reached forward and woke the laptop on the desk. “So who’s it going to be? Not Mokuba, I hope.”

Yugi was quiet for a minute as he looked around the room. Various awards and small trophies filled a set of shelves along one wall. On the opposite, two duel disks sat in stands on a side table. A hand-painted mug was nestled among a set of glass dragon bookends. A gift from Mokuba, no doubt.

The room was probably more of Kaiba’s private sanctuary than his own bedroom, and it gave him a new idea.

“You are.”


	2. Chapter 2

Seto’s fingers froze in place over the laptop keys. “What makes you think that I would agree to be the body?”

Yugi couldn’t help but smirk at him. “Well, how much interest did you have in playing – _really_ playing – with Joey and the others?”

“Very little,” Seto said without a beat, and eyed Yugi’s rather smug face with a raised eyebrow. “Mokuba is much more excited about it, which is why I wouldn’t want him to be the stiff. It’s a short-lived role.”

Yugi snickered, but Seto pressed forward, skeptical. “What makes you so sure that because I agreed to let your friends come here that I would also join them in your little mystery – that may I remind you will be no secret to me since we’re both sitting here plotting the course of the entire evening.”

“You said so yourself,” said Yugi, “Being the body is a small part. Whoever it is won’t really get to play after they’re discovered dead. You don’t want to take part, but this would keep you involved, appeasing Mokuba, _and_ it would limit your involvement with Joey and the others.”

Yugi watched Seto’s features shift to mild interest. _Got him_ , he said to himself. “And _really_ , once everyone discovers the body, we can more or less leave you alone.”

“Get real, Yugi. It’s a _murder mystery_. They’re going to be in and out all over the game space, checking for clues. I’ll be shackled to waiting around for your friends to figure it all out. Which, knowing Wheeler, will be a while.”

“You can be killed here, in your study,” Yugi offered, “Then all you have to do is lay on the floor. Pretend you’re taking a nap or something.”

“While your friends poke and prod at me? _No thanks_. I’d rather just hide in here and get my work done while you all leave me to relative peace and quiet.”

Yugi looked about the room again. He supposed Kaiba could just stay seated and slump over the desk, and that way he could do whatever he wanted when alone, but having to stay hunched over would get really uncomfortable after a while. There was no way of knowing how long he would be stuck in that position, and he would have to be still for the group to examine the crime scene and gather any evidence.

But his eyes then lit up once he spotted a tablet on the corner of Kaiba’s desk.

“I got it!” he said, “Play dead for us, and then when we’re not in the room you could work.” He pointed to the tablet. “You could keep that near you on the floor out of sight or something and just do emails or whatever you need to…and technically you’re still participating in the game.”

Seto’s gaze drifted to the tablet and lingered there, and Yugi could almost _hear_ him weighing options in his head. Not one to back down, now that he could see that Kaiba was considering it, Yugi leaned forward, splaying his hands out on the desk, drawing Kaiba’s eyes back on him. “ _And_ , from a narrative perspective, you are the only one who we could potentially come up with enough fake reasons to kill.”

After several beats pause, Seto sighed and leaned back in his chair. “…Alright, Yugi. So long as I can do _whatever_ I want when your little band of mystery solvers aren’t snooping through my office, then we have a deal. I’ll be your corpse.”

His gaze then hardened. “ _But –_ if I’m going to be more or less trapped in this room after I’m discovered, then I expect _you_ to keep your friends in line. You can use _part_ of the mansion, _not all_ , and I expect your friends to keep out of rooms where they’re not allowed.”

“I understand,” said Yugi. Kaiba _had_ mentioned conditions, and it seemed like now they were finally coming to light. “What do you consider out of bounds?”

“Anything upstairs, for one thing.” The last thing he needed was to find that Wheeler was digging around in his bedroom. Seto got up and led Yugi back into the hall, and towards a side corridor off of the kitchen. “That leads to the basement. Unless we decide otherwise later, no one should be going down there, either. Leave your sleuthing to the ground floor.”

Yugi nodded. That seemed reasonable enough.

“I also expect that when your little game is done, that the house looks the _exact_ way you found it.”

“Don’t mess up the place and stay downstairs. Got it.”

Seto nodded once, gestured Yugi back to the dining room and retreated back to his office.

Yugi settled back in his seat from before, and took a second look around the dining room. There was enough room for all of his friends plus the Kaiba brothers and still have empty chairs.

He still had to come up with some sort of story. For what reason would Kaiba have to invite a number of people he didn’t like – those with enough “grudges” to commit murder – into his mansion in the first place? A dinner party perhaps?

Maybe all of his friends would have a fabricated role to play. Would this be a business dinner full of disgruntled partners or ex-partners? Would Kaiba himself have a role – maybe someone dealing in some under-the-table transactions…and maybe he did all the people at the table dirty at some point. But to invite them all at the same time to his home? What would be the connecting link?

Seto returned moments later with the tablet from his office and narrow stylus pen in hand.

“Let’s get started.”

* * *

“You’re overthinking this,” said Seto.

“Am I?” Yugi groaned. “I can’t come up with enough reasons for people to want to kill you.”

Seto raised an eyebrow, the ghost of a smirk forming across his face. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Yugi couldn’t help but cringe. “That wasn’t supposed to sound that way… _wow_. I’m glad that the both of us know this is for a game, or this would be pretty awkward.”

“It’s a good thing Roland _also_ knows we’re talking about a game,” said Seto wryly, “He takes death threats rather seriously.”

Three days after his initial visit with Kaiba and he once again found himself at the mansion. Yugi was surprised to see that Kaiba’s right hand man and bodyguard had joined them, and was off to the side of the living room, sitting quietly in an armchair, watching them work out the finer details of the upcoming game night. He wasn’t quite sure what the point of having him here was, but Kaiba must be thinking ahead. On what, Yugi didn’t have a clue.

“It’s just…” Yugi began, “Without a special backstory, the only one of my friends who would probably have any want to hurt you – exaggerated reasoning, of course – would be…I dunno…Joey? But I can’t just roll with that because it would be too obvious.”

“You don’t need a backstory for everyone,” said Seto, “Just enough people for a murderer and maybe a few scapegoats.”

Yugi chewed on the end of his pencil and stared down at his notebook. He had long since given up on the poor eraser and resorted to crossing out all of the tossed ideas. The page was a battlefield of scribbles and long abandoned half-formed thoughts.

Well, _he_ thought the ideas were bad, at least. Putting together mystery night was so far a lot harder than he initially anticipated.

“Which of your Nerd Herd is coming, anyway?”

“Everyone,” Yugi shrugged. “The usual gang: Joey, Tristan, Téa, Duke. Serenity is going to be in town so Joey asked to invite her. And of course Atem, and then you and Mokuba. I invited Bakura but he’s not going to be around.”

“Do they know what game night is supposed to be?”

Yugi shook his head. “No…not yet. I think only Mokuba knows for sure, because he was there in your office when I brought it up. But unless you told him anything else, he should be just as much in the dark as the rest of them.”

He tapped the pencil against the side of his cheek. “I also haven’t figured out how to sell this to the gang. They’ll be suspicious at least for having it here. As it is, they’re going to expect to go to the Game Shop.”

Seto stood off to the side of the couch, the tablet in his hand, and was using some sort of tech mastery to project the screen onto the massive tv mounted on the wall.

“I suppose it should be obvious then – don’t tell them what you’re planning on doing. Problem solved.”

“Kaiba, they’re going to know something is up the instant I tell them it’s going to be here.”

Seto leveled him a pointed look. “Mokuba is playing. Tell them he organized it.”

Yugi’s jaw dropped, scandalized at the thought. “I can’t lie to them!”

Seto rolled his eyes. “ _Hosting_ , then, which is not a lie as he lives here.” He gestured to the tv on the wall. “Invite them over under the guise of some video game they’ve never played. That shouldn’t be too difficult; Mokuba has _more_ than plenty to choose from.”

“And when we don’t play any?”

Seto raised an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t you? You want to make a murder mystery? Bring them in under, I don’t know, _Monster Kart Racer,_ and set up the murder after everyone gets here and into a game. It shouldn’t be too hard for your murderer to sneak away from the group while they’re distracted to kill me.”

Yugi looked down at the notebook again and flipped to a fresh page. Having the gang be themselves, and stumble upon the body that way? It certainly was a take he hadn’t considered.

“If I may,” said Roland, for the first time since Yugi had arrived at the mansion, and looked to Seto. “As you are not as well… _received_ by Mr. Muto’s friends, it would also create an illusion that you are _not_ part of their festivities if, say, you make an appearance _after_ the others arrive.”

Yugi slowly nodded. “ _Ooh,_ I think I see what you’re saying. That _is_ different.” He looked back at Kaiba. “Okay, so the day we do this? Say the gang arrives here at…I dunno, four. Show up at _five_ , through the front door or something, make a little scene, make your presence known, and then go hide in your office. We’ll keep on playing and quietly transition things into the murder game, and then the _real_ party will start.”

“How do you plan on the killer getting away without making it obvious?”

Yugi frowned. “I’m not quite sure yet. Everyone would have to branch out somewhere, so no one had an alibi, or we’d all have to gather in the study _with_ you, and I don’t see that happening if we pretend you’re not an active participant.”

“Simulate a power outage,” said Seto. “You’re doing this at night, aren’t you? Shouldn’t be too hard to cause mass confusion in the dark.”

“How can we do that?”

“The breakers are in the basement, near the security room,” said Roland. “I can operate them for you. If you plan on being a sort of narrator or guide to your friends’ game, I can fit you and your murderer with ear pieces and then signals can be sent back and forth when the lights need off and on again.”

Yugi hummed and jotted down another line in the notebook. “I’m wondering if it will still be too obvious who the killer is if they’re not stumbling around with the others in the dark. It’ll be known right away if someone tries talking to them and they’re not in the room.”

“Have you considered creating the illusion of a separate murderer? A phantom player to draw suspicion around, rather than simply have them all point fingers at each other?” said Roland. He got up, reached for his own tablet, and switched out the internet search displayed on the tv with a roughly-drawn floor plan of the mansion’s main level. “If your friends are going to be in here for the majority of the time, you can throw in a red herring. A window open elsewhere, footsteps leading somewhere else in the house you’re not supposed to go, just to give them something else to figure out.”

The corner of Seto’s lip ticked upward. “Or, we can pin in on _you_.”

Roland shrugged. “If you’d like _me_ to make myself known in the house that evening, I can as well, and then ‘disappear’ after you are killed.”

Yugi tilted his head curiously. “Would you also want to be in on it, Roland?”

“I won’t lie that I am curious to see how this all plays out.”

Yugi nodded, scribbling down another note. Another thought popped into his head, and he bit his lip, looking up at Kaiba, who merely raised one eyebrow back at him.

“…What?”

“I have another idea…but you _really_ won’t like it, and I don’t think I can come up with enough bribery to make it happen.”

Seto merely stared at him.

Yugi put the pencil down. “It would help spread the gang out in the house naturally, _hopefully_ , and make it easier for the killer to sneak around unnoticed.” He then turned to Roland. “I like the lights idea, but I think we can work it in somewhere else.”

Seto crossed his arms. “… _Well_?”

“You promise you’ll hear me out first and foremost, and won’t just say no until I’m done?”

“Yugi –”

“ _Promise?”_

Seto huffed. “Alright, _fine_ , now what is it?”

Yugi took a deep breath and began to speak, and saw his rival’s eye twitch before he was even finished.

* * *

_One week later…_

“Say, Yug’, when’s game night gonna be, huh? I thought we would’ve had it already,” said Joey. He leaned back away from the camera so Tristan could get his head on the screen. It was the first time they managed to wrangle everyone online in a long time, and with Téa so far away, it was nice to all be able to chat together.

Yugi grinned. “Well, I was trying to come up with something new. None of the games in the shop were really speaking to me, you know? So I had to track down something else. And _then_ I got overruled, so we’ll, uh, start it in a few weeks.”

“A few weeks?” Serenity pouted from her own screen. “I’ll be back with my mother then.”

“Aww man!” Joey frowned, “You sure you can’t up the date?”

Yugi shook his head. “Sorry, but I have something else in mind instead? As a consolation?”

“What sort of consolation are we talking about?” asked Tristan.

“I’ll let him tell you,” said Yugi, and he shifted out of the way from his camera and angled it to the side of his bedroom, where Mokuba sat on the edge of the bed, waving energetically.

“Hey guys!”

“Hi Mokuba!” Téa waved back. “It’s good to see you!”

Mokuba beamed at her. “How’s New York?”

Téa exhaled noisily. “ _Busy_. But I _love_ it. Next time you and Kaiba are in town, let me know and maybe I can come see you!”

Mokuba nodded.

“Say, Mokuba,” said Joey, giving Tristan a weird look before looking back at the camera, “Whatcha doin’ in Yugi’s house?”

“…Visiting? I had to stop by the shop and pick up something for a friend at school, and then I had to run an idea by him. In any case…I got a question for all of you.”

“What’s that?” asked Serenity.

“Well…” Mokuba looked away from the camera and down at his shoes. “I was wondering if you all wanted to have game day at _my_ house.”

“You mean like _your_ house, your house?” said Tristan, “ _Kaiba’s_ house?”

Mokuba rolled his eyes and sent him a deadpanned stare through the phone. “Yeah. _My house_. As in, the one I live in. With my brother.”

Joey and Tristan exchanged looked.

“Anyway,” said Mokuba, “While we were in the USA last, I picked up some really cool party games that aren’t even available here. I thought maybe we could make a whole night out of it. You can even stay over – we have plenty of room!”

“Uh…” Duke said slowly, and he sighed. “Mokuba, there’s just one problem.”

Mokuba blinked. “What?”

“Your brother,” said Joey, “We don’t like him and he sure don’t like us.”

“Yeah,” said Tristan, “I can’t see him letting us hang out overnight. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his spooky security guys throw us off the property before we even made it to the front door!”

Mokuba scowled. “Okay, look. _First_ of all, Seto already gave me the okay to invite friends. He’s going away to a convention the weekend I was thinking of anyway, so he won’t be home.”

“He’s just leaving you all by yourself?” said Téa, eyes wide. “Why wouldn’t you go with him?”

“Because I didn’t want to go,” said Mokuba, as if the answer was plain as day. “And I think it’s only fair that if you guys always invite me to your places for game day, that I can do it too! And it’s not like I’ll be _alone_. We have security on the grounds.”

“I agreed to let Mokuba take the day I originally wanted,” said Yugi, though he was out of sight of the camera. “That way Téa and Serenity can make it.”

“Oh, that’s really sweet of you,” said Serenity. “Of course I’ll come!”

“Great!” Mokuba grinned, and then gave Yugi a fleeting look before setting eyes on the others again. “Okay, so. I can’t stick around, and I haven’t quite figured out what to do 100% when you guys come, but be prepared to spend the night. We’re gonna play video games till our fingers fuse to the controllers.”

He paused. “And maybe blanket forts.”

“Count me in!” said Duke.

“Do you want us to bring anything, Mokuba?” asked Téa.

“Yourselves,” said Mokuba, “Ok. Gotta go. I’ll give Yugi the rest of the details to send out in the next few days.”

He gave them a quick wave before handing the phone back to Yugi. The conversation migrated in and out of dueling, escape rooms, where Atem was hiding (“in the shop with Gramps,”), and a bet of how long it would take for Joey to get kicked off the Kaiba Mansion grounds, until Téa announced having to get off the call.

“Sorry, guys. I have to get some sleep. Rehearsal soon.”

The others said their goodbyes soon after, and one by one disappeared from the group chat, until Yugi was the only one left, staring at his own reflected image in the bottom corner of the screen.

He sat and waited, not taking his eyes off of his phone, though there was nothing new to look at.

Until the screen suddenly darkened and his ringtone chimed through his bedroom. He was invited to a private video call.

Yugi clicked the “Accept” button and a single face from the previous chat stared back at him.

“At first I thought you forgot to call me back,” he said.

The caller shook their head. “Sorry. Got sidetracked for a minute. So, what is it you wanted to talk with me about, and not in front of the others? Everything okay?”

Yugi leaned forward. “Everything’s cool! So – you’re good to come to Mokuba’s game night, right?”

“Yeah. Sounds fun.”

Yugi smiled. “Great! But there’s something you should know about it first, and you have to _swear_ you won’t tell _anyone_ else.”

They nodded.

Yugi’s smile widened. “Okay. So. Game night at Mokuba’s is going to be _way_ more intense than just sitting around playing new video games. It’s going to be something like we’ve never done before. And _you_ have a really important role to play.”

“Okay…?”

“We’re doing a murder mystery party. And _you_ are going to be the murderer.”

Eyes widened. “Well, I wasn’t expecting you to say that, and honestly, it sounds even _better_. I take it Mokuba knows what the plan really is?”

Yugi nodded. “Oh, yeah. He was super supportive of the idea.”

“So you want me to be the killer.” They smiled. “Interesting. I’ll bite. Which of us do I get to kill?”

Yugi grinned into the phone.


	3. Chapter 3

Mokuba stood in the open arched doorway of the mansion’s living room and admired his handiwork. Every blanket and pillow that didn’t belong in either his room or his brother’s was piled on a table in the far corner. The glass coffee table was pushed well out of the way from the center of the room, and plump floor cushions were placed in a wide semicircle around the tv. Gaming consoles were on, controllers were charged.

His tablet lay on the couch he had vacated hours ago in search of all the pillows he could find. Beyond the sleeping screen was the ordering page for takeout, already pre-loaded with his address, and the mansion gates were already open, ready to welcome both visitors and whoever would be lucky enough to score a ridiculously high tip for delivering their dinner.

He flopped down onto one of the floor cushions nearest the tv remotes and flipped idly through the channels. There was nothing more he could do but wait. Yugi and the others wouldn’t show for at least another hour, and he honestly wasn’t sure how he was going to handle the time. The anticipation of hosting (sort of) his first friends night was eager to burst from his belly.

This wasn’t his first sleepover. Seto had allowed him to go once or twice to a classmate’s home overnight. There was games, movies, staying up well past anyone’s proper bedtime and plenty of junk food to keep them all wired for hours.

So far, he’d managed to replicate it all. A huge bowl of mixed salty snacks and a cluster of various canned sodas were on the glass table, a safe distance from the floor seats. Seto may have grudgingly agreed to allow everyone over _overnight_ , but he would still have a cow if the group left food all over his living room, regardless of how dead he was at the time.

Another quick glance at the clock on the wall. Naturally, time hadn’t progressed forward enough.

“Ughhhh,” Mokuba moaned and clicked through to the next channel. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hold his enthusiasm in, though it _was_ hard. There was no one to talk to! Seto was gone, off somewhere with Roland. _Probably at Kaiba Corp_ , he said to himself. Seto wasn’t one for wasting time. He was probably holed up somewhere, working in an office with Roland or toying around in one of his labs. It didn’t matter. The important thing was that he wasn’t _here_ when the others arrived.

He reached for his phone and sent a quick text to his brother.

_‘What are you up to?’_

His phone chimed almost instantly with a reply.

_‘Watching Roland ruin one of my suits.’_

Mokuba snorted and sat up, thumbs flying across the screen. ‘ _What!? WHY??’_

Seto’s response back wasn’t nearly as fast as the last time. He watched the “…” bubble appear and disappear twice before a message finally whooshed up onto the screen.

_‘It will make sense later.’_

Mokuba pouted. That would hardly help him pass the time _now_. He rolled onto his stomach and sent his fingers dancing across the screen keyboard again.

_‘Why can’t you just tell me? I already know one of Yugi’s friends is gonna ghost you tonight.’_

_‘Then you already know more than most of the Nerd Herd.’_

That was it. No additional follow-up, and Mokuba scowled. Of course Seto was going to be difficult.

“Can you at least say where you and Roland are hiding?” he asked to the empty room, and hit ‘send’.

 _‘Kaiba Corp_.’

Mokuba shook his head. “Of course.”

* * *

_“NOO!”_ Joey fell back dramatically, dropping the controller lightly onto the floor, mourning the loss of his hotdog-clad character as it fell off the track and into the slime pit. His aim for the cushion behind him was off and he ended up rolling off the edge with a surprised yelp.

“So much for that, Joey!” Duke laughed.

“That wasn’t fair!” Joey cried, “I was so close to the end n’ everything! That funky peg-legged pineapple pushed me!”

“Uh huh,” Duke deadpanned, “Or maybe you’re just not good at this game.”

“ _I’d like to see_ you _do better!”_

“Well maybe I could if you’d just hand over the controller!”

“Come on guys, don’t fight,” said Serenity, and she looked to her brother. “It’s okay, Joey! That was a practice run – you’ll get it the next time!”

Joey waved a hand, still flopped on the floor. “Thanks, sis.”

“How did you find this game, Mokuba?” asked Atem. He sat between Yugi and Téa, directly behind the huge popcorn bowl that Tristan and Duke kept making swipes into.

“It was free in the online store this month,” said Mokuba.

“You’ve gotten really far though,” said Téa. The game tallied up Joey’s score and signaled a victory fanfare as Mokuba’s account leveled up. “That’s level 36!”

Mokuba shrugged. “It’s really easy to kill time waiting for Seto to finish working. I can access my account from Kaiba Corp too, which is how I racked up probably a third of all my costume pieces.”

“How do you choose what to be all the time?” asked Yugi. He had watched Joey scroll through what seemed like endless pages just to decide on running around as a generic green jelly bean with arms and legs, dressed as a hotdog. And considering Mokuba said they could each pick a costume for themselves (and showed them how to save it as a favorite so they could easily toggle back later), he didn’t see how he was going to pick just _one_ thing.

“Have you ever won a complete game?” asked Atem.

“Once,” said Mokuba, “Out of dumb luck. I had to jump over the spinner arms otherwise I’d fall and get eliminated. But technically, I got knocked off at the same time as the other guy I was trying to beat and he hit the slime first.”

“Okay, now pass the controller over,” said Téa, “It’s my turn now!”

“Who are you going to be?” asked Serenity.

“I already know,” said Téa, grinning as she cycled through the pages. “A fairy unicorn in a rainbow tutu!”

Tristan snickered and watched her change out of Joey’s green character skin. “With pink heart underpants! I like it.”

She leaned forward as the various levels cycled across the screen before landing on her playable round. “Huh. ‘See-saw’. We haven’t played this one before….”

Mokuba wrinkled his brow, scrunching his nose up in a pout. “Gross. Have fun.”

“You’ve played this level before?” asked Joey.

“I’ve played all of them,” said Mokuba, “This one isn’t _hard_ , but a lot of your success rides on the movements of everyone else, so it’s just a big mess.”

“Oh.”

“But, at least there isn’t any slime to fall into!”

“ _Lucky,”_ Joey muttered, and sat up properly so he could watch Téa’s run on the obstacle course.

“Okay, here goes,” said Téa. The countdown on the screen ticked down to the flashing “START!” and then she surged forward, crowding onto the first tipping see-saw with the brunt of the other players. Her jump onto the third see-saw, the one right before the first checkpoint tilted against her and she slid off, respawning back at the very beginning of the level, along with half of her opponents.

“Oh boo,” she muttered, and ran forward again.

“It looks like it gets easier once more people have passed by,” said Atem, “You’re not battling the sides of the see-saw and it will stay level for you.”

“Yeah,” said Téa, and sighed loudly in relief. First checkpoint achieved. She didn’t have to start back at the beginning again.

“Not a lot of people made it to the end,” Tristan said, and from his spot on the floor just off to the right of the tv, pointed up at the “QUALIFIED” tally. “Only six people have made it in so far.”

“Yeah that’s because they’re all–” Téa cut herself off and whined as she slid off another see-saw. Back to the checkpoint. “Falling off.”

“Isn’t that the point of this game?” said Duke.

“Only if you’re bad at it, like I apparently am,” said Téa, and spared the briefest of glances to the closing number of qualified contestants. “There’s no way I’m going to win this level.”

“Don’t give up, Téa!” said Yugi, “You can do this!”

“Yugi I haven’t even made it to the final checkpoint yet, and there’s only ten spots left!”

She jumped onto the first blue see-saw. Then the adjacent yellow one. Then pink. Back to blue.

“YES! Checkpoint!” She scooted forward enough that she was barely on the cushion. “Only four more see-saws…and then –”

ELIMINATED!

Téa closed her eyes, let out a long sigh, and then held the controller off to Atem. “…and then the game moved on without me.”

Atem started cycling through the customization options when a door opened and shut from elsewhere in the mansion, and Mokuba straightened up in his seat to glance towards the doorway.

Duke craned his head to look out with him. “Expecting company?”

Mokuba shook his head. “That’s probably just security. There’s usually two or three guards for the perimeter at night, and Roland usually schedules an extra couple of guys when they know I’ll be here alone.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” said Téa, and now that she was no longer playing, she could turn to face him properly. “Why _did_ Kaiba leave you all by yourself?”

“Eh,” Mokuba shrugged half-heartedly, “Sometimes he doesn’t take me to his big business conferences. It’s not like there’d be much for me to do.”

“Yeah, but you’re his V-P,” said Joey, “Don’t you gotta go?”

“Not really,” Mokuba admitted, “Some of the time, I’m not allowed cuz I’m not an adult. And usually Roland goes off with Seto to help deal with any business stuff anyway.”

He plucked a bit of stray fuzz off of the carpet and pinched it between his thumb and index finger. “I like helping Seto out at Kaiba Corp, don’t get me wrong, but Seto doesn’t _make_ me do any actual company work unless I really want to.”

“Kind of shirking your duty otherwise, isn’t it?” asked Duke.

“I’m only twelve,” said Mokuba stiffly. “I’m too young to have a real job anyways. Seto enjoys hiding down in the labs developing duel disks or the newest virtual technology. But he also knows that it may not be completely what _I_ want, and he’s okay with that.”

The mystery footsteps from somewhere off in the mansion grew louder. Joey reached for his soda as Mokuba hesitantly got up and moved towards the doorway.

“Still trying to decide, huh?” Yugi asked, looking at Atem. He had circled back to the beginning of the costume collection twice now.

“I’m torn,” Atem murmured, “Between the cactus and the magician.”

“Oh,” Yugi nodded, “I remember the magician, but not the cactus – where is it in the hub?”

Mokuba suddenly ran from the room, and they could hear the light _whump_ of him barreling into someone. “Hey bro!”

Joey nearly choked on his drink, and started to frantically wave his arms, coughing. Once he was certain he wasn’t going to die, he swiveled around and stared out the doorway. “ _I thought he was out of town_!”

“That’s what I thought,” said Duke, scowling. “If he’s going to be here, we can kiss the rest of this party goodbye.”

“Seriously,” Tristan muttered. “I thought the only reason we were able to come over was because he _wasn’t_ going to end up giving us a hard time.”

“Now that’s not fair!” said Serenity. “You can’t judge someone by how they acted during Battle City!”

“It’s not just Battle City, sis,” said Joey. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Kaiba don’t like us one bit, and that was _before_ his tournament.”

“And the feelings are mutual,” Tristan said.

“Come see!” Mokuba said from somewhere out in the hall, and before they knew it, both Kaiba brothers were in the doorway. Seto, in a dark pinstripe suit, had the extended strap of his laptop bag perched on his shoulder and what appeared to be a garment bag of some kind draped over his other arm. He swept a hard gaze out at everyone in the room before his eyes landed on the tv screen. Atem’s hunt for a caricature abandoned in order to greet him.

Seto rolled his eyes. “ _This_ game, Mokuba? I should have known.”

“What’s wrong with it?” asked Yugi.

“A game based entirely on luck and impulse with no thought behind it.” Cold blue eyes honed in right on Joey. “ _Mindless_ entertainment.”

Joey glared right back at him, but Yugi got up from the floor before he could say anything.

“Hi Kaiba,” he said. “How was your trip?”

“Cancelled,” Seto snapped. “How nice of the organizers to send that alert out after I had already left.”

The pileup of blankets in the corner caught his eye and he looked down at Mokuba. “Did you leave _anything_ upstairs?”

“Yeah, what was in _your_ room. Come on, Seto. It’s a _sleepover_! You can’t expect everyone to just sleep on the floor, can you?”

Before Seto could clap back with something snide, Mokuba added, “And you _did_ say we could have one.”

“A decision I’m instantly regretting.”

Mokuba pouted. “Want to play a round with us? You might feel better after showing us all up.”

“Whose side are you on anyway?” Duke muttered.

“I have better things to do,” said Seto. He turned to leave, then tossed another fleeting glace back into the room in Joey and Tristan’s vague direction and finally back to his brother. “I’ll be in my study getting some work done. I won’t go back on my promise, Mokuba. The Nerd Herd can stay the night, so long as you keep the mutts from barking.”

And with that, he stormed off down the hall and around a corner, out of sight.

Joey clenched his fists together.

“Kaiba must be incredibly on edge,” said Atem. He stared down at the hallway where Kaiba had disappeared, and Yugi could catch the flecks of worry in his voice. “I know he was never fond of us as a group, but I haven’t heard him sling words like those around in a long time.”

“Yeah…” Yugi said. His hand started to go for the backpack at his feet, hiding his notes for the evening, just in case he needed to reference anything back for the others, before he checked himself and rested his hand instead against his leg.

“Well my mood is ruined,” Duke said. “How are we supposed to enjoy ourselves with Kaiba probably looking over our shoulders, ready to kick us out at a moment’s notice?”

“He won’t,” Mokuba insisted. “He said we can have our party and he doesn’t go back on his word. It doesn’t matter if he’s home; we can still have a good time.”

He leaned over from his spot behind the couch and grabbed his tablet. “If you want we can continue this game so Atem and Yugi can have a go, and then we can move on to something else.”

“What did you have in mind?” asked Serenity.

“There are other games we could play – actual multiplayer ones, I mean. But in the meantime, I thought we could order food for later.” He blinked down at the near-empty popcorn bowl. “I…uh…didn’t expect you guys to polish off all the snacks so fast.”

“Hey, gamin’ makes me hungry!” said Joey, all thought of Kaiba being in the mansion abandoned at the first sign of food.

“Everything makes _you_ hungry,” said Tristan.

“Ignore them,” said Téa. “What were you thinking of getting?”

“We’re in delivery range of this really good pizza place,” said Mokuba. “It’s easy to get a bunch of pies and feed a lot of people that way.”

Atem set the controller down on his floor cushion. “What if we took a little breather after ordering dinner? We can always return to this game later. There’s no rush after all. We have all night.”

“Got anything else to do besides video games?” asked Duke.

“There’s a game room,” Mokuba shrugged. “We don’t use it very much. It was something our stepfather used more when he was entertaining. But there’s a bar and a pool table in there if you wanna do that.”

“Hey that sounds fun,” said Tristan. “Anyone up for hitting the cue sticks?”

“I’ve never played before,” said Serenity.

“ _I’ll teach you_!” Tristan and Duke said, simultaneously, and then they exchanged dirty looks. Joey wasn’t impressed.

“We can migrate over,” said Mokuba, tapping away on the tablet. “I’m going to order six pizzas. Think that’s enough?”’

Téa’s eyes widened, jaw dropping. “Mokuba I think that’s probably _too_ many!”

“Nah,” Mokuba shook his head. “There’s eight of us, and Seto. And if there really are a ton of leftovers, you can take them home or the mansion staff can have some tomorrow. It’s no big deal.” He snickered. “And besides – we’ve already established that Joey can eat for two.”

“Look here, little man,” said Joey, slinging his arm around Mokuba. “I got a bottomless stomach and I’m proud of it!”

Téa giggled. “And Tristan is right there with him. Don’t think Joey’s the super-eater here all by himself.”

“See?” Mokuba laughed and ducked out from under Joey’s arm to start ordering. “Okay. What do you guys like on your pizza?”

“What do _you_ like on your pizza?” asked Serenity.

“Me?” Mokuba blinked. “Oh, I go for ham and pineapple.”

He looked around at the group’s varying reactions. Yugi and Téa merely nodded. Joey looked as if someone had torn up his _Time Wizard_ right in front of him, and Tristan looked repulsed.

“Mokuba,” Tristan said, “Pineapple doesn’t belong anywhere on a pizza.”

Joey nodded in fierce agreement.

Mokuba stuck his tongue out. “Well then _you_ don’t have to have any.”

“You know, I think I’ve tried almost every topping _except_ pineapple,” Duke said thoughtfully. “It doesn’t sound _bad_.”

“Don’t do it, buddy,” Tristan warned, “If there’s ever _one_ thing you ever listen to me about, let it be that.”

“Don’t listen to him!” Mokuba said, “Pineapple on pizza is amazing, and it goes really well with the ham!”

“Well, maybe I’ll try a slice,” said Duke, “But my go-to varies depending on my mood. So don’t order anything specifically for me.”

“Okay,” Mokuba shrugged and looked to Joey and Tristan. “Alright you pineapple nonbelievers, then what do _you_ like?”

“Meat,” said Joey, without missing a beat, “And lots of it.”

“Nothing beats a good ol’ classic pepperoni,” said Tristan.

Mokuba nodded. “Okay, one pepperoni, one meat – that has all of these on it.” He turned the screen towards Joey. “That okay?”

“Oh yeah! Hey, can you toss extra bacon on that?”

“Done!” Mokuba looked to the others. “What about you guys?”

“I like veggie,” said Yugi, gestured to Téa who nodded eagerly. “We can share one.”

“What about you, sis?” asked Joey.

“I…I suppose a white pizza, if that’s okay?” asked Serenity. “You’re already getting so many different ones…”

“No, it’s fine!” Mokuba said, “ _Really_ , it is! White pizza! You want anything on it or just all the cheese.” He glanced at the different options. A pure cheese-only pizza actually sounded really good….

To his surprise, Serenity looked almost afraid to answer him, giving her brother a nervous smile, as if she didn’t want to say her next words in front of him.

“Would you be able to put pineapple on it?”

Joey gasped dramatically and clutched at his heart. “ _Noo, Serenity!! My own sister!”_

Serenity laughed, “Just on half, please. I want to try it.”

Mokuba snickered. “Another one joins the pro-pineapple squad, I love it!” Satisfied, Mokuba plunked down on the floor next to Atem. “You’re the last one! Whatcha thinking of having?”

“I’m not sure,” Atem admitted, “I made one myself at home with Yugi and his grandfather once, but I don’t think fig or goat cheese are options at that place.”

Mokuba frowned and shook his head. “Afraid not. But there’s something called a Greek Pizza.” He showed the topping list to him. “Would that be close enough?”

Atem read the description and then nodded, satisfied. “Yes, I think so. Can you add extra olives?”

“Sure!” He turned back to Duke. “Okay, so we have a super meaty pizza, pepperoni, Hawaiian, Greek, veggie, and a white pizza. Do those work for you?”

Duke nodded. “Oh yeah. All of those sound great.”

“Cool. Thanks for being the least picky out of all of us.”

Téa leaned back, splaying her palms flat along the floor to brace herself. “Wow. I’m impressed. That was six pizzas, just like you said.”

“Technically seven. I gotta get one for Seto too,” said Mokuba without looking up from the tablet.

“Nah you don’t,” Joey waved a hand flippantly. “Betcha he don’t even eat pizza. Probably too greasy for Mr. Fancy Pants.”

“Mr. Fancy Pants does eat pizza sometimes,” said Mokuba, “And I’m not going to just leave him out because he decided not to hang in here with us.”

He got up from the floor. “I’m gonna see what he wants and then place the order.”

Joey also got to his feet and stretched out his arms. “Say, which way’s the pool table?”

“Huh? Oh.” Mokuba pointed down the hall opposite the way Seto had disappeared to his office. “It’s that way.” Then he too wandered off, in search of his brother.

“Are you going to take your go at the obstacle course, Atem?” asked Téa.

The controller still sat at Atem’s feet as Tristan and Duke followed Joey out of the room. “I suppose I can,” he said, “I might as well, after that extended hunt to find a caricature to play as.”

Serenity cooed. “Aww, that’s the cutest cactus I’ve ever seen!”

“Isn’t it?” Yugi laughed.

Atem pushed hit the button to start the new game. His character free-fell through the loading screen and lined up with the new wave of online players in front of a row of pink and white doors.

“Oh, this one!” Yugi scooted further up on his cushion. “This was the one Duke almost won!”

“His poor little orc got trampled and left in the dust,” said Serenity.

“This is absolutely based on luck,” said Téa. “All those doors look the same.”

Atem nodded as the countdown started, palms already feeling sweaty against the controller. He just had to find the real door in the lineup. And get through it. And get through the next one. And the one after that, and the one after that, and hope that he didn’t get left behind. Only thirty players get to move forward, out of the starting sixty.

His little cactus-man ran forward once the round began. He had spawned right in the center of the pack, and a hotdog with fairy wings had already found the right door and was leading the pack through it. But its second attempt through the line fell short as it, and the others that had followed, plowed right into a fake door.

Atem veered his character the other way and barreled into the door farthest to the right, and it broke apart, allowing him entry.

“GO!” Serenity cheered, “Before the mob catches up to you!”

Spurred on, Atem then moved to the next line and hit the door second to the right. Correct again.

“There’s no way you can be that lucky a third time,” Téa whispered, eyes wide. She wanted so badly to turn and see the focus etched across Atem’s face, but didn’t dare look away from the screen.

He broke through the correct door. Second from the right. Again. And again.

And again.

The final door dropped him in a short sprint’s distance from the finish line.

“ _Atem_!” Yugi raised his hand up and Atem matched it in an echoing clap of a high-5. “You made it to the end first!”

“That was amazing!” Serenity gasped. “How did you know those were going to be the right doors?”

The round ended seconds later after the player herd caught up and surged across the finish line. Atem dropped the controller into his lap as the game comically booted off the disqualified players. “Honestly…I just guessed.”

“Still, that was really impressive!”

“Oh, the next round is starting,” Atem said and got himself into position again as Mokuba wandered back in.

“Okay, pizza should be here in about an hour… _oh_! You’re still playing!”

“You missed it, Mokuba,” Téa said, “Atem just _destroyed_ everyone in the round with the doors!”

“Seriously? _Man_ , and I missed it too!” He plunked down next to Yugi. “So is this round two or three?”

“Two,” said Atem. “It looks like here I just…have to not fall off the rotating wheels?”

“Uh huh,” said Mokuba, “It’s pretty easy.”

“Here we go,” Atem said, and moved his cactus to the next platform to avoid falling off the edge. “Oh, this isn’t bad at all!”

He rotated the camera and jumped back to his original platform, and was only a step from the edge when an orange character with polka dot shorts and a jester cap nudged him right off the platform and into the abyss below.

ELIMINATED.

“WHAT!?” Atem shot up. “ _HOW!?”_

“That clown didn’t like your victory in the last round, I’m guessing.” Yugi shrugged.

Atem pouted. “That is not good sportsmanship.”

Serenity got up. “I’m going to see how Joey is doing. Anyone want to come?”

“Sure,” said Atem. “I don’t think I’ve ever really played pool.”

“Don’t say that near my brother – he _will_ destroy you in it, and then afterwards show off with like a hundred trick shots,” said Mokuba. He reached for the remotes and switched off the console and the tv. “We’ll give that a break for a while.”

“Say, Mokuba,” Téa asked, “Are…um…are we allowed to move around the house?”

“Just the downstairs,” said Mokuba. “Upstairs and the basement are off limits. But there’s plenty to do down here. We got video games in the living room, I got board games I can bring down from my room, and there’s the billiard table room.”

He pointed to a closed door off to the left. “That’s the library.”

“You have a library?”

“Uh huh. There’s a really comfy reading chair in there, so if you get tired of games and want to find a book to read or something, totally hit it up.”

Atem chuckled. “I think you’ll be keeping us far too busy for that.”

“Oh I don’t know,” Téa said thoughtfully, “I might take a peek after watching the pool game. We’re really just waiting for pizza at the moment anyhow.”

“Like I said, feel free,” said Mokuba.

Duke then turned a corner, saw them, and waved his arms. “There you are – which way’s the kitchen? I could use a drink that didn’t come out of a can.”

Mokuba pointed back towards the living room. “Go back, yeah, that way. And go across the foyer, past the stairs. You can either follow the hall around, or sneak in through the dining room. It’s huge and you can’t miss it. If you want water, glasses are in the cabinet next to the stove, and you can use the dispenser right in the freezer door.”

“I’ll come with you,” said Téa, “I could use something to drink too.”

“There’s juice and tea in the fridge also!” Mokuba called after them.

Duke held up a thumbs up as he and Téa rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight.

It was hard to tell who was playing worse at the pool table. Joey had solids, Tristan stripes. Each had about half of their set still out on the table somewhere. From the doorway, Yugi could tell that they were both having fun with the game.

The cue ball was also having a fun ol’ time avoiding everything it was sent to hit.

“How’s it going?” asked Atem.

“Wonderful!” said Joey, and he waved his cue stick wildly enough he almost hit the side of the bar.

“Careful….” Mokuba warned.

“Heh, sorry. Anyhoo, I pegged Duke to be a master at this game. Sure showed him!” Joey said with a wild grin.

Tristan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, why don’t you use some of that skill and play your turn already?”

Duke returned moments later and eyed the dartboard hanging on the wall. “Hey, Serenity, how about a game?”

“Sure!” she said, and snuck behind Tristan, who watched her cross the room with a scowl up until Joey snapped his fingers right in front of his eyes.

“Yo! Tris’! I took my turn! You can stare at Duke later!”

Tristan jerked his head back and lightly shoved Joey’s hand away. “ _Hey_! What makes you think I’m staring at _him_?”

Joey’s voice was flat, in complete contrast to Yugi and Mokuba snickering from the doorway. “Cuz I _know_ you weren’t watchin’ my sister, _right_?”

Tristan wrinkled his brow. “I was – _thinking –_ of how to kick your butt in this game, that’s all.” He turned, aimed the stick, and shot the cue ball right into the opposite corner pocket.

Joey gave him a sad pat on the shoulder. The goofball grin was back on his face. “Strategy could use some work.”

* * *

“Mokuba, which way is the bathroom?” asked Serenity.

“Over near the kitchen,” said Mokuba, pointing across the foyer. After Tristan’s disastrous run on the pool table, the cue sticks were handed off to Yugi and Atem, and Mokuba led Joey, Tristan, Duke, and Serenity back to the living room where he started them on a four-player controller-mashing game where, as funky gelatinous characters, the only goal was to slapstick wrestle everyone _else_ out of the environment.

As a yellow blob dressed like a neighborhood granny, Tristan managed to throw Joey’s red character clad in a penguin suit off of a moving truck in retaliation for kicking his ass at the pool table, only to get taken out by failing to duck under the overpass.

By some miracle, Serenity, in her blue kitty costume, managed to kick Duke off the back of the trailer and into oncoming traffic.

“You’re good at this!” Joey had said in awe. When did his little sister get good at video games?

She had laughed. “I honestly had no idea what I was doing.”

“That’s the fun of the game,” said Mokuba, “there really aren’t instructions. You just figure it out.” He took the controller she left behind and started a new game. “Okay. We did the highway. How about the subway?”

“Do I get to throw Tristan in front of a moving train?” asked Duke, ignoring the dirty look Tristan shot back in return.

Mokuba’s grin was so wide it could have reached both of his ears. “Uh huh…”

“Then let’s go!”

The doorbell rang out through the downstairs halfway into the level, not long after Tristan’s miraculous escape off of the train tracks before the subway car plowed right over him.

“ _Food_!”

Joey started hitting all the extra buttons on the controller. “How do we pause this?”

“We don’t,” Mokuba said casually, and used Joey’s distracted moment to jump from the top of the steps, tackle him, and drag him near the subway tracks before Joey recovered enough to punch him in the face.

The blow knocked him off the edge just in time for the oncoming train to run him over.

“Then who’s gonna get the door?” asked Tristan.

Mokuba started to get up, but heard footsteps in the hall. Roland had emerged from what looked like the hall leading to Seto’s study and crossed the foyer.

“Oh, Roland’s got it.”

“Kaiba’s spook? He’s here too?”

Mokuba nodded. “Apparently so. I thought he just dropped Seto off from the convention that didn’t happen, but I guess he’s sticking around for a while.” It wasn’t unusual for him and Seto to be sitting on either side of the same desk, deeply concentrated with work, even outside of regular office hours.

Roland emerged in the doorway minutes later. “Pizza boxes are along the dining room table.”

“Thanks, Roland!” He got up from the couch. “Okay, since I’m out, I’m going to grab plates and whatnot. When you finish your round, come find us, yeah? We’ll grab slices and meet back here for a movie while we eat.”

“Someone ought to tell the Kings of Duel Monsters that there’s pizza before Joey eats it all,” said Duke.

“I’ll go,” said Tristan.

Mokuba stopped halfway across the foyer. “Oh! Téa’s in the Library!”

“On it,” said Duke.

Mokuba wandered into the kitchen and made a grab for the bundle of plastic plates and cups he set out before the gang arrived. He was in the middle of digging through the fridge to pull out all the extra drinks when he heard Serenity behind him.

“Can I help?”

“Oh, sure!” He pointed to the plasticware. “Can you take those to the dining room?”

“No problem,” she said. “Anything else I can take for you?”

“Uhhhh….” Mokuba did a quick cursory glance around the room. “Oh. In that drawer…no, keep going, wait! Go back, _yeah that one_. Grab a knife to help break the slices apart?”

“The restaurant would have cut them, though?”

“Yeah, but not _really_. Try and pull a slice apart and you get yours plus all the cheese on the rest of the pizza. Not a fun time after your first piece.”

He grabbed the juice and tea gallons and shuffled off after Serenity back into the dining room, where Duke and Téa were opening and sorting through the pies.

Tristan wandered in next with Yugi and Atem in tow. Joey was the last to arrive and grabbed a plate eagerly in search of his four-meat pizza. He stopped, however at the first pie on the very end. “Hey, what’s this one?”

He looked to Atem. “This yours?”

Atem shook his head. “No, mine has olives on it. I think that might be Kaiba’s.”

Joey wrinkled his nose. “Hey, Mokuba! This Kaiba’s?”

“What does it look like?” He didn’t look up from the other side of the room, and was rapid-fire typing something into his phone.

“Like a limp salad on pizza dough.”

A low sigh. “Yeah, that’s his.”

“That ain’t no pizza,” said Joey. “That’s just… _sad_.”

Yugi stepped closer and peered into the box before closing it to keep the heat in. “It looks good actually! Fresh basil and all those tomatoes, and…is that…ham?”

“Porchetta,” said Mokuba, “But yeah. _Fancy_ ham.”

“It’s a dang salad on soggy bread instead o’ a bowl,” Joey cringed. “Can’t decide what’s worse – that or Mokuba’s pineapple pizza.” He paused. “ _Or_ that my own sister is into that nasty craze too!”

“I never said I was into it,” Serenity laughed. “I just wanted to try it!”

“Look here, you’re a _Wheeler_. Wheelers don’t eat pineapple on pizza!”

She playfully stuck her tongue out at him.

Tea grabbed a plate and pulled out a veggie slice for herself, and then for Yugi, and noticed Mokuba staring at his phone. “You alright?”

“I sent Seto a message saying his pizza was here, but he didn’t respond back to it.”

Tristan blinked. “You… _texted_ your brother, when you’re both in the same place?”

“Better than yelling across the house,” Mokuba said stiffly. “Oh well. Maybe he’s tinkering with that prototype again. It doesn’t matter. I’ll just….”

He grabbed his brother’s pizza box, which Yugi noted was a tad smaller than the rest, and balanced a plate on top.

“If you guys want to grab a plate, and get yourself situated in the living room, I’ll be right back. There’s tea and juice here, water is through the tap on the fridge and I think there’s still some sodas in the living room on the snack table. Seto is okay with us eating pizza in there so long as you don’t get sauce or grease on _anything_. The tv remote has the streaming channels linked into it, so pick a movie to watch and once I give Seto his pizza I’ll join you!”

Yugi nodded. “That works!”

Mokuba called out from out of sight. “The end table by the tv has drink coasters in it. Please use them!”

“Got it!”

Duke was the last to join them from the dining room, a slice of Mokuba’s Hawaiian pizza on his plate, (“we can’t be friends anymore, Duke” Joey laughed), when they heard Mokuba scream out from across the house.

“ **SETO!!!”**

Joey lowered his pizza back to his plate. “That kid just scream bloody murder?”

Serenity got up and took a few hesitant steps into the main foyer. “M-Mokuba?” she called. “Are you okay?”

Atem moved into the hall after her, just in time for crying Mokuba to round the corner and slam right into him.

“Mokuba – what is it?”

“It’s S-Seto!” he cried, “He…he’s….”

“He’s what?” asked Téa.

Mokuba sniffed loudly and gave Yugi a quick look before looking up, watery-eyed, at Téa. “He’s…”

He rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, then grabbed Atem’s hand and pulled him back towards the other hallway. “J-just come s-see…”

Out of the corner of his eye, Joey saw Yugi vanish back into the living room while they hurried after Mokuba, stopping short just outside the open door to Kaiba’s home office.

Mokuba raised a shaking hand and pointed inside.

“What’s Kaiba done thi– _what the heck!?”_

Joey froze instantly, half a step through the threshold.

The office was in disarray. The pizza box was left haphazardly on the couch against the wall by the door. Papers, most likely from the desk, were scattered all over the place.

Kaiba was sprawled out on the floor, eyes closed. There were red stains and small tears along his jacket. One arm was stretched out, away from him, the hand resting on a discarded document, staining it red.

He wasn’t moving.

Tea gasped loudly from the doorway. “ _Kaiba_!”

“ _He’s….he’s not_ ,” Tristan couldn’t even pick his jaw up from where it hit the floor. “He’s not _dead_ right?”

“ _I shook him and he didn’t answer me_!” Mokuba wailed.

“Well,” Yugi began, pushing past Joey and Tristan and into the middle of the room. Joey took one look at his best friend, wrinkled his brow, caught eyes with Tristan and pointed back at Yugi with a face that clearly said, ‘ _What the heck!?’_

Somehow he had smooshed his spiky hair under a deerstalker cap. A clipboard was hugged to his chest and he twirled a pen in his other hand.

And he didn’t seem fazed by the sight of the office _at all_.

“Looks like we’ve stumbled upon a mystery,” said Yugi.

“Yug’, pal, what are you doin’?” asked Joey. “This ain’t a time for games.” He then looked at Kaiba before staring back at Yugi. “…Unless…”

Yugi held his arms out wide. “That’s right, Joey. _Welcome to game night!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a child, I hated tomato sauce. White pizza was the best pizza. As an adult that still doesn't like too much tomato sauce but will eat pizza to be sociable, I have learned that pineapple is the only topping worth eating. 
> 
> Therefore, pineapple + white pizza = **magic**.


End file.
